


Together Again

by AKnightOfAGoodKing



Series: Devil May Cry Attends Redgrave Elementary [6]
Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Backstory, Domestication, Dysfunctional Family, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-30
Updated: 2019-03-30
Packaged: 2019-12-07 05:26:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18230510
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AKnightOfAGoodKing/pseuds/AKnightOfAGoodKing
Summary: Vergil's Return to Dante: A Side StoryOr: How V and Nero Came to Be.





	Together Again

**Author's Note:**

> **[DO NOT REPOST/REUSE MY WORK(S) WITHOUT MY ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND PERMISSION]**
> 
> Like the previous work, this is just intended to build backstory, you can ignore if you want. Can be slash.

The kid was a strange kid, thin, frail, polite. He said he was twelve years old, but he spoke too softly and too carefully, like an old man. His smile was too gentle, a pretty boy with white hair curtaining his dark green eyes. 

Dante thought his brother died or fucked off forever, but when this kid, carrying nothing but the clothes on his back, a golden book, and a silver cane, claimed that  _Vergil's_  alive,the older man was stuck between not wanting to care and demanding answers. The boy let himself in first. 

"What's your name?" Dante asked, closing the door as he watched the boy carefully. 

" _I have no name; I am but two days old,_ " the boy replied, chuckling. "Just kidding, you can call me V."

"Alright, what's this about Vergil? I haven't heard anything from him in years, what does he want now?" 

V sat down on the red couch, letting out a heavy breath. "Many things happened," he said mysteriously, "things that has changed his mind. However, it'd be better if you stopped asking, Dante, that's in the past now. Both Vergil and you just need to move on, Dante, and sometimes, it helps not to know."

Dante frowned. "How would you know?"

The twelve-year-old thought about it for a second. "Don't you?" he asked, questioning Dante in turn rather than give a straightforward answer. 

The man frowned ever more, but he didn't push, feeling that he was only going to run in circles with this kid. He sat down at his chair and puts his feet up, leaning back with all his weight. "What are you?" he asked, moving on. "You don't look like him, but you feel like him, sound like him, remind me too of him."

V tilted his head, looking over. "I am him. I am not without him, and he is not without me." 

They didn't talk anymore after that, and a whole business day passed.  

Around midnight, Dante told V to take his bed, that he was going to stay up tonight. "Does this mean he's coming back?" the man asked as the twelve year old headed upstairs. 

V stopped at the fifth step. "I hope so," is his reply. 

"Well, I guess we'll have to get you a bed."

The boy nodded his thanks and proceeded upstairs. Dante spent the night at his chair, glancing over at the door as he continued to read his magazines with half interests. Inside, his blood was pumping like crazy, wanting to fix things he thought had lost all their pieces, wanting his family back, wanting his brother home. 

But Vergil didn't arrive that night, or the night after that. A new bed came first, and V's room was set up at the other end of the hall. Already, Trish quietly accepted the new stranger living in Devil May Cry, knowing Dante's history. The three of them ate a lot of pizza, that was until Trish and Dante realize how poor in health and frail V is. 

"We need a kitchen," Trish said, putting her foot down. Kids weren't her forte, but she was not heartless enough to ignore one in need of better nutrition. If she was going to live with a kid under the same roof, she was not going to let him die faster. It was cheaper to buy groceries and to make meals than have stuff delivered. 

"Put it in the back, I don't care," Dante said, eating yet another slice. V was sitting at other side of the desk, barely chewing on the crust. 

The blonde huffed. "Better start taking more jobs, it's gonna cost us."

V put down his pizza. "I have funds," he said. "It should be more than enough."

Dante scoffed. "Keep it," he replied.

"You already purchased the bed for me, Dante, I rather not be a burden to you or Trish."

"Not taking your money. If you feel like you want to earn your keep, look over whatever records we keep and make sure I don't lose this building or something. You'll be my new secretary, keep me out of legal trouble and make sure I don't forget my stuff." 

Dante was probably joking, but V contemplated this. The teen nodded before picking up his pizza again. 

A week passed, and the kitchen was going underway, an actual refrigerator, a stove, and an oven thrown into the mix. It was pretty much the first time V left Devil May Cry since he'd arrived, Dante telling him to buy some more clothes because he wasn't going to keep letting the kid wear his. The man's pants were way too long and wide, and his shirts were huge on the kid's thin frame. 

V returned in two hours, all his purchases in nothing but black much to Trish's approval, save for one tiny blue bird, dark in plumage with red on his eyes, and the things bought for him. The bird sat comfortably on the kid's white hair like it was his nest, but V didn't seem to mind. 

"His name is Griffon," the kid announced, not asking if he could keep a pet, but Dante didn't care, not when V was smiling something more than just polite.

The bird went wherever V went, either nestled on the kid's head or on his shoulder. Sometimes, Griffon was following, flapping his little wings. He wasn't a demanding bird but a bit mischievous, knocking over V's cane to the floor and pecking at whatever hand tried picking it up. The kid never got mad, though perhaps a little irritated, but anyone could tell that V cared a lot about that bird. 

Strangely enough, Griffon cared about V too, like he knew what it meant to care for a human being. The bird always chirped loudly whenever his master looked like he was going to stumble over so someone could come and help him. When V was taken cared of, Griffon rested on the kid's hand, lifting a wing to make a patting gesture. 

It was amazing how quickly they'd grown attached to each other. 

Bringing Griffon to Devil May Cry made V comfortable enough to start settling in, and the kid bought a personal computer two months in, after three weeks of rewiring and updating the electric code of the building. 

Devil May Cry was in an aging part of the city, let go due to lack of interest by the local government and by investors. It was why Dante got it pretty much dirt cheap in the first place, but with V's suggestion, it'd come to be worth more than the man first bought it for after the investment. 

Dante didn't really care about any of that, but he didn't complain, he wasn't the one hiring the people to fix up the place. If they didn't bother him, the man could still do his business. 

What the kid did with his computer was beyond the adults, as long as he kept out of trouble really. If they _were_ his parents, they were the most relaxed and trusting, but this came from the fact that Dante and Trish didn't know V that well. The kid didn't talk much about himself, but he answered questions. It was just that his responses were riddled with poetry and was pretty much to interpretation. 

Three months after V moved in, Lady returned from a job in Dubai. When she found out V had something to do with Vergil, she threw the 8-ball at Dante's head and slammed her way out the door. 

Dante and Lady first met because of Vergil, and the other man still left a sour taste in her mouth. V apologized in his place when she finally came back two weeks later.

"I've realized the gravity of the crime I've committed." the kid said, not much of an apology but a confession. "I've realized how important everything was . . . everything I've thrown away in my pursuit for power."

He looked forlorn, speaking as if he was Vergil, as if he was Vergil's humanity with the words of his wisdom. 

Dante spoke to Lady about it later, sharing a bottle of whiskey between the two of them. 

"Who even if that kid?" Lady asked. "His hair is white."

"Not mine if you're thinking it," Dante replied with a snort. "Vergil was always the prettier one, I got all the sexy."

The woman rolled her eyes in exasperation. "So, is he coming back?" 

"I don't know, I hope so. Guy's a big bag of dicks, but I miss him. If he wants to come home, I'll let him. It's been, what, fifteen years? That's a long to time to not know someone you've known your whole life. We've never been apart this long before, but nothing's been the same since Mother died. If you want, I'll kick his ass and make sure he begs on his knees for your forgiveness, if you're into that."

Lady laughed. "Crude. I'll do it myself," she shot back. Her expression softened. "Can  _you_  forgive him, Dante? Out of all of us, he hurt you the most. He hates you as much as you love him."

Dante smirked. "He never hated me, Lady, the only person he ever hated was himself. I should know, twins think alike."

They finished the bottle, and Lady started coming over more often, becoming an official job broker for Devil May Cry rather than just an associate.

"I need to stay in case he does come back," she told Dante, "I have to make sure he doesn't break your heart again."

He smiled, telling her that the room next to V's had always been hers. 

In a span of less than four month, for the first time, Devil May Cry started looking like a legitimate business, a functional home. They even bought a TV, and they closed for business on a regular basis. With so much management and more people helping with the business part, Dante was actually making money. J.D. at some point stopped commenting on the fact that Dante could pay for his electricity and water. 

More importantly, it felt like his family was coming back together again. Yes, he already had Trish and Lady in his life long before V, but he guessed that in his mind, family always included Vergil, or at least whatever was left of him. The man never denied it, or hated it. V's arrival was enough to start things rolling again, and for the first time, Dante was hopeful. 

Some more months passed, and it started to rain almost weekly. It was a nice change of pace, and that was when he asked if V should be attending school, you know, like a normal kid. If anyone came snooping around, he'd better have a reason why a kid living there wasn't attending school, not that they'll ever get into that kind of trouble. 

" _The hours of folly are measur'd by the clock, but of wisdom: no clock can measure,_ " V stated, shaking his head. Griffon puffed up his chest in protest. "I go at my own pace, Dante, and it would be too strenuous for me to come and go so much. Did you forget I keep a cane to walk?"

"So, homeschool?" 

The kid nodded, the bird almost slipping off. Griffon kicked at V's head, to which V grabbed him, holding onto his pet in his hand. "I learn myself. I am ahead of the peers my age, I can take placement tests if you want proof."

"It's fine, as long as you go to college eventually. And go make some friends, your cane shouldn't be a reason to make you a shut-in." 

V smiles, placing Griffon back on his head. 

A year in, give or take three months, V turned thirteen, or so he claimed. As a birthday present to himself, he brought home another pet, this time a cat. 

"That's  _not_  a cat," Lady noted flatly as the three adults look at the preteen with interest and mild confusion.

The "cat" was huge, "cat" was an understatement. She was as higher than half of V's height with a long, little tail and a full set of teeth meant for a predatory. Her coat was pitch black, her eyes glowing red even in the light, and her legs were thick with muscle. Her very being screamed danger. 

But currently, she was spread out over her master's lap on the red couch, taking a nap as V brushed her fur with a new brush. And strangely enough, Griffon wasn't frightened, also taking a nap on his usual spot. 

V looked content. 

Dante just shrugged, telling the preteen that he meant  _human_ friends. 

Eventually, Dante was getting impatient, always was, even if he never said it out loud, but Trish knew for one reason or another. Maybe he was just that easy to read. He wanted to go out and look for his brother himself. 

Then finally— _finally—_ out of nowhere, as if his brother knew, Vergil finally showed up at Devil May Cry, looking as prim and proper as usual, wearing a light blue dress shirt and suit pants. The same blue eyes looked at each other, the older man's hair slicked back as he'd always worn it. He looked well rested, he felt worn out. He bore the sword their father gifted him, Yamato, against his hip. 

"Hello, Dante," Vergil said at the open threshold of Devil May Cry, voice flat. 

"Vergil," Dante replied from his desk, his mouth dry. He had so many questions, but it felt like they have so little time. Fifteen years had passed, and there were still so many feet between them.

And a boy, with  _their_  white hair and  _their_  blue eyes, stood by Vergil. The boy didn't seem frightened but weary, as if all too aware of their history, and he shivered, his thick jacket not winning over the cold of the weather. 

Trish and Lady stared, almost shocked to see the boy and the man, but V stood up, pushing Shadow gently off him as he put his book in the pocket of his coat. 

"Hello, Nero," the preteen greeted the boy with a small smile, almost doting. "Do you know me?" 

The boy, Nero, shook his head, but then he stopped, blue eyes watching carefully, only to change his mind and nod. "Father," Nero said, looking up at Vergil. 

V smiled a little more, talking Nero by the hand. "Let's just say I'm your brother. You father has always had a little brother, and I will too. You may call me V." The preteen spared a glance to Vergil who watched with a passive look on his face. "I take this as your resolve?" 

"You'll take care of him when I can't," Vergil replied. "He's hungry and cold, comfort him." 

Stern as the response may be, for the first time, V laughed a genuine laugh, not a bit like an amused chuckle or a short huff. " _Thou dost smile, I sing the while, sweet joy befall thee_ ," he recited. 

The man huffed, an agreement of some sorts. He glanced up to the women, who looked at him with weariness. "Leave us," Vergil demanded, though it did not sound like a demand. 

Lady glared, crossing her arms. "Why don't you make me?" she challenged. 

"My roof, my rules," Trish added, "so you better watch your tone before I kick you out. Just because you're Dante's brother, it doesn't mean I'll get out the red carpet for you, Vergil." 

"Hey, if you're going to fight, take it outside," Dante joked, though he was a little anxious. He put on a grin. "This place is enough of a mess already."

V stopped them, pulling Nero closely with him. The boy was holding onto Griffon with a look of delight, Shadow pattering after them. 

"Please help me make something for Nero to eat," the preteen said to the women. "Dante and Vergil have much to talk about it."

Lady and Trish paused, looking to Dante for his response, and the man just nodded, giving him a grateful smile. Lady sighed, gesturing for V and Nero to head into the kitchen. Trish lingered just a bit before she followed, leaving the two brothers alone together for the first time in years. 

Vergil closed the door behind him, the chill no longer allowed in, and he glanced around the whole room, looking less than impressed. "Your taste haven't changed, brother," he commented, walking towards the red couches. He sat down, and visibly, he relaxed, closing his eyes as he leaned back, Yamato placed at his side. He sounded relieved.

Dante got up, taking the other couch. "And you haven't either," he said. "What are you doing here, Vergil? You haven't contacted me in fifteen years and you just walk in like you own the place."

"Circumstances have changed."

"Nero . . . He's your son."

"Astute observation. I only discovered him less than two years ago. I never knew, I didn't expect him to exist. I don't remember much of the night he was conceived, much less his birth mother."

"You were intoxicated."

"Perhaps." 

"I would've never expected you to have a drink too much."

"I didn't."

There was silence, heavy and awkward, and then: 

"What do you want from me, Vergil?"

"I want to come home," he confessed quietly. "I still seek revenge against Mundus for the death of our mother, but Nero's existence stops me from continuing on that path. Mother would've scorn me if I abandoned my own child to pursue death."

"You left me, what made you change your mind now?"

"I've realized that I am tired, Dante."  _I've realized how important everything was . . . everything I've thrown away in my pursuit for power._

"Yeah, having a kid does that to you," the younger man said. He paused. "How do I trust you again, Vergil?" 

His brother opened his eyes, and he got up in a fluid movement, slipping from couch to the other. In a heartbeat, fifteen years had passed, and there were only so many inches left between them, Vergil's gloved hands holding Dante by the face, kneeling at his brother's side as he pressed forward so that their heads touched. 

"You don't," Vergil said. "Let me stay here for the night, and tomorrow, you can throw me out."

Now, when time and space became a distant memory, Dante grabbed his brother with his arms and brought Vergil down for an embrace a long time coming, his face pressed the other man's shoulder. 

"If you ever try to leave again, I'll kill you," he said. "And the next time you try to come back, I'll make sure you burn in Hell."

Vergil only just chuckled into his brother's ear, not pulling away. "As if you could," he replied. 

"I've gotten stronger since we last met."

"We'll just have to see for ourselves which one is the better." 

"You're on."

"Not now, we'll save it for any other time," Vergil said, closing his eyes. "Now, let me rest." The older man let himself slump over his brother, his body unguarded, and his breathing became a gentle beating. 

Dante held onto Vergil a little longer, so scared of losing him again. 

He told the others in the kitchen, "I'm going to take care of Vergil."

"Are you sure, Dante?" Lady asked, weary. "He's just come back." 

The man smiled a little, feeling peaceful. "Yeah, I'm sure. I'll listen to all your complains in the morning so give me the rest of the night off."

Trish thinned her lips, tapping her fingers on her elbow with her arms crossed. "You better finish what you started," she said. "Remember that this is your war, and you must see it to the end."

Dante nodded, giving her a grateful look. "V, you okay with taking care of the kid?" 

The preteen hummed, sitting next to a watchful Nero. The boy had a small plate of curry in front of him, only a few bites taken.

"Eat," V gently urged him, taking the spoon of the table. He scooped a spoonful and offered it to the little boy. 

Nero obediently took the mouthful, chewing messily. The sight struck something in Dante's heart.  _His nephew_.

"I'll see you in the morning," the man promised, going back into the main room. 

Vergil was still there, head against the back of the couch with an arm over his eyes. 

"Come on," Dante said, grabbing his brother by the arm, and silently, he dragged his brother up the stairs and directly to his room at the very top, Yamato in hand. "You need a shower?" 

"No," the older man replied, taking a seat on the unmade bed, and he started to take off layers, starting with his shoes. 

Dante did the same, kicking off boots and removing articles of clothing until he was down to only his boxers. 

Vergil had gone almost to that extent, but he kept the thin shirt he wore underneath. He was looking above the headboard where, on the wall, Rebellion was displayed, the sword that their father gifted Dante. Yamato was placed against the wall nearby on the floor. 

The lights were turned off, and both brothers crawled into Dante's bed, shifting and moving like they had done thousands of times before. They didn't say anything, but Dante dared to reach his arms out to pull Vergil closer by the waist. 

Vergil let himself be pulled, returning the sentiment with an arm over Dante's shoulder. "If you still kick in your sleep, I'm throwing you off the bed," he said quietly. 

Dante chuckled, shaking his head against his brother's collar. "That's for me to know, and you to find out," he replied. "I don't usually share my bed."

"I see. I thought the two women from downstairs . . . "

"God, no. They're my closest friends, they kinda hate you for being a huge dick. You remember Lady?" 

"Yes. She's . . . changed."

"Time does that to you."

Vergil paused. "But you haven't. At least, I think so."

"Stupid. Yeah, I did, it was time that didn't change, when eternity hold you with every hour."

"That's not Blake." 

"Who cares?"

They shared a laugh, and for the first time in a long time, they talked the night away. 

 

 

 

 

 

"Good morning, Nero, I'm Dante."

"Fool."

"Excuse me?" 

"Father says you're a fool."

". . . Bitch."

"What does that mean?" 

"Uhm, how old are you?" 

"Six."

"I don't know who's kill me first, V or Vergil."

"Why? What's 'bitch'? 'Bitch'!" 

"No, wait! Stop saying that! Get back here!"

"Trish, what does 'bitch' mean!"

" _DANTE!_ "

**Author's Note:**

> If you like my work(s), please check out [my Twitter](https://twitter.com/kappachyun?s=09).


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